


Potion of Affection

by penwitch



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bullying, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Love, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Post-War, Potions, dramione - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:28:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28547910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penwitch/pseuds/penwitch
Summary: When Professor Slughorn's 8th year potions class turns out to be too easy for Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger, they are asked to develop a new Dreamless Sleep potion for Madam Pomfrey. Over the course of their work, they are forced to drop their prejudices against each other ...
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Kudos: 9





	1. A new assignment

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me!

“There are 16 minutes left of class, everyone, so if you haven’t added your lacewing flies yet, then good luck!” Professor Slughorn’s laughter was drowned out by the sounds of students frantically stirring in their cauldrons and crushing their flies as fast as possible. 

Malfoy looked at the neat row of vials on his desk, all four filled with a mud-like substance. His Polyjuice potion had turned out perfectly, which couldn’t be said for some of the others. Hannah’s cauldron contained something resembling concrete with her spoon trapped in it, while Ernie’s had a pungent smell, suggesting he’d used twice the necessary number of leeches. Malfoy had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. 

In a normal year, none of them would have made it into a N.E.W.T. level potions class, but normal rules didn’t apply to the survivors of the war. Some came back for an 8th year to take their exams, others wanted to hide from the chaos in the world. And some had nowhere else to go.

Malfoy let his gaze wander over the rows of students, until it reached a table in the back of the room. A neat row of vials was placed next to a clean cauldron, and behind it, a girl had her nose buried in a book. Of course, Granger would have managed to brew a Polyjuice potion. Hadn’t she already made one back in her second year? Malfoy snorted, thinking about Granger turning herself into a cat.

“I didn’t know potions is such a funny subject, Mr. Malfoy?” Professor Slughorn had walked up behind him with a disapproving look on his face at the sight of his empty cauldron. “Do you think you are not required to participate in my class?”

“I do not, Professor. As you can see”, Malfoy gestured to the vials on his desk, “I completed the assignment, Sir.” It took some restraint, but he managed to swallow the rest of the sentence ‘and I did it in a time that is actually appropriate for a final year potions class.’ There was no point in drawing additional attention to himself. He stood out badly enough as it was, being the only Slytherin of their former class to return to Hogwarts. After the war, the Ministry of Magic had debated on sending him to Azkaban along with his parents, but surprisingly instead ordered him to finish his education at Hogwarts. Some days, he wasn’t sure if Azkaban wouldn’t have been a more comfortable choice.

Malfoy was snapped out of his thoughts by Slughorn hitting his hand on the desk. “That’s it! Oh, why didn’t I think of this earlier?” He spun around. “Granger, get over here!” With some satisfaction, Malfoy saw that Granger seemed equally as surprised as him about the sudden outburst. While she quickly packed away her stuff, Slughorn paced up and down the aisle, murmuring something about the greatest idea of the century and the unparalleled brilliance of an old man. There really must have been no other potions professor available for McGonagall to hire Slughorn again, Malfoy mused. 

“Sit down, sit down, I haven’t got all day”, Slughorn pulled out the chair next to Malfoy, gesturing wildly. After a calculating look at Malfoy, that he met with a cold stare, Hermione sat down. 

“As you can see –“, Slughorn flinched at the sound of a cauldron exploding behind him, “there are vastly different levels of skill in this class.” Next to him, Granger snorted. Slughorn swallowed, the next sentence visibly pained him. “The two of you are my best students, miles ahead of the class, and there is little I can still teach you.”

Malfoy began to get bored. He’d rather eat a leech than listen to another one of Slughorn’s infamous speeches. Thankfully, Granger saved them. “Professor, is there a problem? My work is correct”, she quickly glanced at the vials in front of her, “and Malfoy’s here looks good as well. Surely we will pass our exams like this?” 

Professor Slughorn beamed at her. “Of course, you will excel at them, Miss Granger”, he turned over to Malfoy and his smile got more forced, “and you, Mr. Malfoy, should have no troubles passing them as well.” Distantly, Malfoy realized that the open disdain Slughorn showed didn’t sting as much as it would have years ago. 

“But, I have a proposal for the two of you. Madam Pomfrey came to me a few days ago, asking me for help developing a certain, new potion.” Slughorn gestured behind him. “I agreed to do it, but now, looking at the state of this class, I will likely be forced to spend most of my free time tutoring your classmates.” 

Slughorn paused dramatically. “Seeing your evident skills in this subject, maybe the two of you would be interested in working on the new potion instead?” 

Malfoy was too stunned to answer and the silence to his left suggested that Granger felt the same way. 

Mistaking their surprise for self-doubt, Slughorn put his hands on their shoulders, quickly taking it away again when Hermione flinched violently. “Sorry, dear. As you can see, some … remnants of the war are still present, even here in the castle. Madam Pomfrey is worried about the high demand for the potion of Dreamless Sleep, especially in younger students.” Suddenly, Professor Slughorn looked years older. “It leaves them drowsy and tired for the rest of the day, but without it-“

“-´without it, they cannot sleep”, Hermione whispered, finishing the sentence. Malfoy was surprised. Did she take it too? He had thought the praise the ‘Golden Trio’ had received after the war would have let her forget the horrors. 

Slughorn continued. “So, it would be your task to improve the current potion. Make it more effective, find a way to combat the lingering drowsiness, reduce the risks of becoming dependent on it.” He rubbed his hands. “It won’t be easy but the two of you should be able to make some progress on it. And should you have some success with it, your names will be on the bottle as well.”

Malfoy glanced to his left. Granger looked hesitant. Probably because working with a ‘Death Eater’ would sully her pristine image of being a war-hero, he thought, but before he could say anything, a newfound resolve appeared on her face.

“I’ll do it, Professor”, she said, then turned to him. “Malfoy, are you in?” She left him no choice. Declining now would open him up to even more insults, something he really didn’t need. “Well, someone has to make sure you’re not messing this up, Granger”, he sneered. 

“Wonderful, wonderful!” Professor Slughorn looked relieved. “I’m sure you two will have a marvelous time.” Malfoy highly doubted that.

Once Slughorn left to help Hannah in her attempt to remove the concrete from her cauldron, Granger turned to him. “Well, here we are”, she said firmly. 

Malfoy decided to cut her off before she could spew any bullshit about working together and forgetting old grudges. “Save that, Granger. I only agreed to this because if I didn’t, they would have probably found a way to send me to Azkaban for it.” He let out a humorless laugh. “So, Granger, you are free to do what you want. I for my part will work on this alone.”

Granger’s face was red from anger. “Fine”, she snapped. “Suit yourself, Malfoy. But then I will not pretend we did this together.” She stood up and resolutely pushed her chair in. “The person who comes up with the better drought gets to claim the work.” With this, she stalked out of the classroom.

Malfoy sighed. This would be a very long year.


	2. Library Incidents

When Hermione stepped into the library the next day, she immediately felt at home. The shelves full of books in every size, the huge windows flooding the room with light, the ancient armchairs– all of this made the Hogwarts library her favorite place in the world. When she had returned to Hogwarts at the beginning of the summer to help rebuild the castle, Hermione had volunteered to clean up the library first. Once the room was back to his original glory, it became her favorite hiding spot. Madam Pince kept tight reigns on the library, making sure everyone followed the rules and kept quiet. With a mug of tea generously supplied by a house-elf, Hermione spent hours reading in the cozy armchairs or simply looking out the window. 

Now, Hermione sat her bag down in her favorite spot, a table right by the window that would be hit by the afternoon sun in a few hours, and made her way over to the Potions section. Tracing her fingers over the books on the shelf, she read: “Dragon Dung Fertilizer, Drought of Living Death, Drought of Peace, …“ Where was it? There had to be a book on the Dreamless Sleep Potion, the library was required to keep a copy on every potion. After she had checked the surrounding shelves to see if it was in the wrong spot (doubtful, Madam Pince reshelved every book herself), her eyes fell on an empty spot on the bottom shelf. Apparently, someone already had the book, and Hermione had a pretty good idea who that someone was.

She sighed, and silently cursed herself for not getting to the library earlier. Lately, her insomnia had gotten worse, not allowing her to fall asleep until the early hours of the morning. Her refusal to use a sleeping drought (“No thank you Madam Pomfrey, I need my brain to be awake and alert these days”), paired with a generous schedule of mostly afternoon classes meant that Hermione was rarely up before noon these days. After multiple professors taking her aside to ask about the dark circles under her eyes, she also paid careful attention to never leave her room without a glamour charm in place.

Without the detailed instructions for the potion, there was no point in thinking about modifications, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do anything. Walking over to the Herbology section, Hermione decided to start by researching possible ingredients for a new drought. Maybe by adding something to the recipe that combats the drowsiness and- 

“Damn you, Malfoy”, she muttered. All registers of possibly stimulating potions ingredients were missing from the shelf. With a big sigh, Hermione took one of the general ingredient registers off the shelf, groaning under its weight. A long afternoon of leafing through hundreds of pages of ingredient lists and researching their properties one by one was in store for her. If Malfoy wanted a headstart, now he had one.

Loud whispering and giggling coming from the other side of the bookshelf pulled Hermione out of her thoughts. A quick look around made it clear her that no help would come from Madam Pince, as the stern lady had left her desk to take a break outside. Annoyed with those who broke the beautiful silence of the library, Hermione walked back to her table to gather her things. 

She was still debating on whether to check out the huge register or just wait for Malfoy to be done, when the whispering caught her attention once again. “Shhhh, there he is… Malfoy, over there …”. Malfoy was in the library? Hermione had pegged him for someone who preferred to study in his room. Interesting. Slowly, she inched closer to the bookcase to try and catch a glimpse of what was going on.

A small group of fifth year Slytherins whispered intently, pointing at someone out of Hermione’s view. Sliding the books a few inches to the left, Hermione sent a quiet prayer for the students not to turn around and discover her, but her caution was unneeded. They were all focused on watching Malfoy, who was sitting at one of the study desks, his head buried in a book. Presumably one of the books she needed, Hermione grumbled. Distantly, she noted the dark bags under his eyes, only barely conceiled by a glass of thin, silver-rimmed reading glasses. Interesting, she’d never seen him use glasses during their earlier years. Now, that she took a closer look at his face, his chin also looked even pointier than it normally was. 

Before she could further contemplate Malfoy’s potential weight loss, a swift movement from one of the students distracted her. A tall, skinny boy had jumped out from behind the bookshelf with a menacing grin on his face, stopping only a foot away from Malfoy’s desk. 

“Hey, Malfoy!” he sneered. “Learning some new curses? Trying to make daddy proud, after he was so disappointed in his little traitor of a son?” The disgust was written all over his face.

If the boy had hoped for a reaction, he was sorely disappointed. Only a slight twitch of the muscle around his jaw gave away that Malfoy even heard the comment, let alone cared about it. Even Hermione was impressed with that much self-control. 

“Malfoy? Are you deaf?” The other students now stepped forward as well, emboldened by their leader. “Not very nice to ignore people, y’know? Did mommy forget to teach you manners?” Another twitch, but Malfoy didn’t look up from his book.

“Well, we just came to tell you that you should maybe change out of these robes”, an omionous grin appeared on the boy’s face “Y’know, since there is something on them.” With this, one of the Slytherins pulled a little bottle out of his robe and quickly poured the contents over Malfoy’s arm. “Dragon piss”, the boy said, looking smug. “Now you smell like the peace of shit you are.”

Hermione inhaled sharply. She knew Malfoy had mostly kept to himself after returning to Hogwarts but she didn’t know the extent of the animosity some people held for him. Apparently, he had long lost his title as the Slytherin prince. 

Realizing their taunts fell on deaf ears, the group quickly left the library. Once their steps had faded in the distance, Hermione tentatively stepped out from behind the bookcase. Malfoy was inspecting his robes, getting increasingly annoyed when his attempts at cleaning spells remained fruitless and intensified the odor. 

“Try orange juice”. Malfoy’s head whipped around at the sound of her voice. “Put some orange juice on it, let it sit for a day, and the stain will be gone. Only thing that works, it’s magic-resistant.” Charlie had told her about that trick years ago, at a Weasley-family Christmas dinner, much to Molly's dismay who hated dragon-talk at her dinnertable.

Malfoy didn’t take her sudden appearance quite as well as she had hoped. “Granger”, he hissed, “What in Merlin’s name are you doing here?” 

At the sound of his blatant animosity, the little bit of sympathy Hermione had held for him after what she had just watched, evaporated. “This is the library. I’m doing what one does in a library, I’m getting books”, she said pointedly. “Or rather, I was getting books. Until I discovered that someone has already taken most of them.”   
“Well, I hope this entertainment sufficiently compensated you for the frustration?”, Malfoy sneered. “Must be nice for you. ‘War Hero sees Death Eater get beaten up’, I can see that as a headline.” If Hermione didn’t know better, she’d have said he sounded almost bitter. 

Suddenly, Hermione felt very tired. They had just fought a war, and yet, nothing had changed. The hatred and chaos in the outside world had also penetrated the walls of Hogwarts, poisoning everything within. She wanted nothing more than to be back in her room, away from everyone else.

“You know, Malfoy, I would have thought that after all this time, you would have grown up. But if you want to play the old game, fine.” She turned to walk away, then hesitated. After a second, she added: “I’m not sure if you realized, but it’s not like you have a million friends. At least, I was trying to help you. Sooner or later, you will need people on your side and you’d do well to try and make amends before it is too late.” 

With that, she left the library, levitating the heavy book in front of her and once again being grateful for the single rooms the 8th year students were granted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will Malfoy ever change? We'll see ...
> 
> let me know what you think so far!


End file.
